Giethoorn: Netherlands’ Venice of the north

If I asked you to name a pretty city with lots of canals, you’d probably come up with Venice. And you’d be right! But what about Giethoorn in the Netherlands. OK, it’s not a city, but Giethoorn is just as pretty as Venice and it also has lots of canals.

The old part of the village, known in the Netherlands as the “Venice of the North”, is entirely car-free and can only be navigated by boat or foot (using Giethoorn’s many lovely wooden bridges).

The village was founded in 1230 by fugitives from the Mediterranean. Apparently, the first thing they noticed when they got there were loads of goats horns that had been strewn about the place by a massive flood.

It’s said that this is what gave the new settlement its name – Giethoorn translates as “goat horn”, you see. I guess it’s lucky they didn’t just find a few heaps of rubbish there instead…

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About Dom Stapleton

As well as being the world’s northernmost capital city, Reykjavik in Iceland is also an incredible place to visit.

We stayed in a hotel right in the middle of the city and spent most days walking around from there. The main thing we noticed (apart from the cold, of course) was that the people are so friendly. At home, trying to cross the road is a nightmare, but in Reykjavik, the cars are literally queuing up to let you across.

When my partner and I went, in January 2013, the sun only started rising at about 10 am, which was a strange experience. And it got dark at about 4 pm each day!